Pandora's Curse
by silverlacedhunter
Summary: Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus and there's only one person who can get them out. Crimson is a sixteen year old girl who's had a pretty crappy life. But things get interesting when a new student shows up and flips her whole world upside down. Crimson's got a curse though, and a confusing prophecy on top of it and little does she know that every move she makes determines her fate
1. Chapter 1

Prologue Ψ

I hate to start off on such a bad note but my life seriously sucks. I've lived around the same people my whole life and I've never been able to fit in. For one, no one else in my town has been diagnosed with ADHD or Dyslexia. No one else has eyes that shift from blue to green, and they don't have jet black hair. I live in a small town where no one ever leaves and no one really comes in. Ever since I was a toddler I had been isolated life a freak, and to everyone that's what I was. On top of that I'm extremely socially awkward. Any time I'm forced to work with or talk to people I'm not comfortable with, my stomach burns like someone is pouring acid into it. Needless to say, I spend every single day alone. It sounds really pathetic doesn't it? That's easy for you to assume! If you had to spend one day around these jerks who were worse than the devil's spawn, you'd prefer to be alone too! Once when I was around five years old, this girl Bianca and her little crew of zombies cornered me on the playground. They stepped on my lunch and then pushed me into the mud. Then Bianca got her twin brother Julian to sit on me so Bianca could chop off my ponytail. The entire school laughed at me until my hair grew back. Obviously Bianca got away with it; her parents are insanely rich, so everyone does whatever she says out of fear.

It's kind of unfair that I'm the only person in this entire town who's hated and isolated. I wouldn't mind it so much if I had someone I trusted to turn to, but I don't. My mother was killed when I was six, right in front of me. I can still remember everything, although I never speak about it because it would definitely land me in an institution. Ever since then I've lived in various foster homes.

Well enough about the depressing part of my life, fair warning my life is quite depressing. At least it was for a while; recently weird things have been happening. Things I can't explain. I should probably start from the beginning; it'll be easier now that you have some kind of idea as to who I am. Oh and let's make one thing clear, I don't need or want your pity, so keep it to yourself! Now that that's out of the way, welcome to my world.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1 Ψ

Fire was everywhere; it seemed to burn constantly with no intentions of stopping or slowing down. The strange thing was that there didn't seem to be any smoke. The flames moved rapidly and in strange ways like there was something inside of them. I squinted my eyes and leaned forward as far as I could without being incinerated from the sheer heat of the flames. Finally I was able to make out what was in the fire, and that's when thousands of tortured shrieks and cries filled the silence. There were people who were tied to stakes with barbed wire, others were being cut in different places, had salt poured directly onto the cuts and then had the cuts wet with alcohol. There were others whose torture was so gruesome; it was too scarring to look at. The people seemed to sense me somehow because they all cried out to me for help, desperately trying to grab onto me. A demonic like figure raised his sword made of black metal that was dripping with blood and proceeded to slice me in half.

I woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. The room was dark but I knew that it was somewhere near dawn. I stumbled into the dingy bathroom and flipped the light on. It made a low buzzing sound that kind of annoyed me and kind of scared me at the same time. My skin was clammy look and pale so I splashed some water on my face. That took care of the cold sweat but did nothing for the bluish hue under my eyes. Making a face at my reflection, I left the bathroom and went into the kitchen. I wasn't surprised to see my foster "dad" and his drinking buddies sprawled around the living room. I rolled my eyes, grabbed a bottle of water and some aspirin and walked back to my shared room. I tiptoed to my dresser, careful not to wake anyone else up. The last time I did that, I ended up with a broken wrist. I didn't really hold it against them since a couple of them could really use the miracle of beauty sleep. I grabbed my uniform which consisted of a stupid blue, green and black plaid skirt, a white blouse and an optional blue cardigan. It seemed like such a stupid idea for such a small school to have a uniform, not to mention it was a waste of money.

It was around 6:15am by the time I finished getting dressed. Due to my lovely ADHD I couldn't help but get dressed early, otherwise I'd become even more restless than usual. To pass the time and distract myself I decided to walk to school. The walk would take about thirty-five minutes, by that time the school's library should be opened, meaning that I could hide out there until homeroom started. Unfortunately, I overlooked one tiny detail when I was making my plan. I'd have to walk by Bianca's house. It was also unfortunate that I realized that when I was halfway down her street. Before I had a chance to turn around and walk the other way, Bianca had walked out of her house. She spotted me and an evil smirk replaced her neutral expression.

"Oh freaking crap." I mumbled under my breath, I started walking faster hoping to avoid whatever Bianca was plotting. She hadn't stopped trying to hurt me in every way possible that she could. She was also freakishly strong for a girl who was a size zero!

"Hey freak, where do you think you're going?" Bianca called after me; I didn't have to be looking at her to know she was grinning wickedly. I kept walking in hopes that she'd leave me alone. I was wrong, without warning a strong force from behind shoved me and my hands scraped against the concrete.

"I was talking to you freak!" I turned my head and glared up at her, but on the inside I was freaking out. I got back on my feet and saw Julian walking towards his sister. My stomach clenched hard with anxiety, Bianca took advantage of my distracted mind and kicked me in the stomach so hard I literally flew back a few feet. Stars exploded behind my closed eyes as my body smacked against the sidewalk. I was desperately wondering how nobody was seeing this. I rolled over onto my side and could barely make out Julian scolding Bianca who scowled but reluctantly agreed to whatever he had said. I groaned and sat up, spitting blood out of my mouth that had collected from when I had bit my tongue. I tried standing and my stomach felt like someone was stabbing it with butcher knives where Bianca had kicked me.

I wanted to cry but no tears spilled from my eyes. Wasn't there anybody in the world who cared about me? The walk to school took me twice as long since I couldn't walk very fast. The entire way to school people stared at me with looks of disgust and whispered among each other. This was the last time I'd ever walk to school again. By the time I got to school, second period had started and I'd earned myself a detention for being late without a "valid" excuse. While I was in the office I noticed a pale boy with brown hair, brown eyes and crutches sitting off to the side. If I hadn't been in pain and pissed off I might've paid him more attention. It wasn't usual that we got a new student. The poor kid looked terrified just being there, well I couldn't blame him. Our school was filled with demons sent straight from hell. He looked at me and his demeanour of anxiety was replaced with curiosity. I rolled my eyes and walked out of the office and to my second period class.

If I didn't desperately need credits to graduate I wouldn't even bother showing up to school. I could barely focus in my classes and they all bored me to death; for example, twenty first century history. The name alone is enough to bore anyone with a brain. As usual, the teacher was going on about whatever it was that we were learning and I was busy day dreaming. However, my eyes were drawn to the door when it opened revealing the principal and the guy on crutches from the office.

"Excuse me class, I'd like to introduce our school's new student Blake Hart." The entire class's eyes were on Blake, but that didn't seem to faze him. He came over to the empty desk next to me and sat down. The shocked and disgusted stares from everyone didn't bother him either. He just stared at me and smiled. From the corner of my eye I could see Bianca and the look on her face was so deadly it could've killed the devil. I shook my head lightly and went back to day dreaming, this time staring down at my desk.

It turns out that Blake happened to be in every single one of my classes. That left me with no other choice but to talk to him. It felt strange being able to talk to someone who wasn't threatening me or looking at me like I was the scum of the earth. Blake turned out to be a very good listener and was super funny. I couldn't remember the last time I'd laughed so hard, let alone laugh at all.

Hanging out with Blake also gave me an excuse to get to class late; since Blake was crippled he couldn't walk as fast as me. Apparently he'd been crippled since birth but he had an amused twinkle in his eyes when he'd told me. Yeah the kid had some psychological issues he needed to sort out. On our way to fifth period, this was the last period of the day, our conversation turned towards Bianca.

"So what's the story with you and that Britney chick?"

"You mean Bian-"

"Yes her." Blake cut me off and I gave him a confused look but went on.

"Um well she's hated me, along with everyone else in this stupid town, since I moved here with my mother when I was almost five." Blake stared at me intensely and asked me to tell him everything she'd done to me.

"Well she's tried to kill me several times and she really enjoys beating the crap out of me. One time we went on a field trip to the aquarium and she told me that she wanted to apologize for being such a jerk to me." I rubbed my wrist which was a nervous habit of mine.

"What happened next?" Blake asked and sat down on a bench that the school randomly decided to put at the end of the hall. I sat next to him.

"Well she took me into a room above the jelly fish tank and walked to the part where the tank was opened. The next thing I knew, her twin Julian had locked the door and they started asking me weird questions about me dad." This was the part of the story where my brain got fuzzy. Trying to remember what happened was like listening to an old TV on the wrong channel. It was almost like static!

"When I said I didn't know anything about him, Bianca rolled her eyes and said I was useless. I turned around to give her a piece of my mind but she was gone. Only Julian was left, and that wasn't much better. He had a demonic smile plastered on and before I had a chance to run away, he shoved me into the tank. The rest gets hazy after that. I can't remember anything besides getting into serious trouble with my mom." I shook my head and stood up.

"Come on, we're seriously late for class now!" I shouldered Blake's bag and waited for him. For the rest of the day he seemed to be lost in his thoughts and I was scared I'd lost the only friend I'd ever had. Blake insisted he was just thinking but I had a feeling he didn't want to be hanging around the outcast anymore.

When school was over it'd started to rain, I didn't care since I liked walking in the rain. It was the only time my ADHD seemed to shut the hell up. Apparently Blake lived a few blocks away from me so we walked home together. We were walking by an open field when a truck drove by and ended up splashing us. At least I think it did, Blake was soaking and was gaping at me. Apart from a few splashes of rain on my clothes here and there, I was perfectly dry.

"Oh my gods, I knew it. No one else believed me! You are real!" I stared at him with utter confusion as he stared at me in amazement.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2 Ψ

"What do you mean I'm real? Of course I'm real! I'm standing here talking to you aren't I?" What was that supposed to even mean? I'm real, was I supposed to be dead?

"No that's not what I mean; do you have any idea of what just happened?" Blake was still gaping at me and staring like he couldn't believe I was an actual human being.

"Uh well a truck drove in a puddle and the puddle splashed us." I raised an eyebrow wondering where he was going with this.

"No! The truck splashed me! Nothing touched you. Oh my gods I've got to get you to camp now!" Blake grabbed my wrist and started leading me through the field.

"Uh no way! I'm not going anywhere with you until you tell me what this is all about." I tried to pull back but Blake was stronger than I was.

"There's no time now, they're almost here! I've got to get you to camp." By now Blake was running, running without his crutches!

"Whoa Blake aren't you crippled?" I practically shouted over the rain which was now falling heavier than before.

"Gotta call Chiron." Was all I heard. Just as Blake was pulling out his cell phone a strong force knocked both of us to the ground.

"I'm sorry Blake, but you and Crimson aren't going anywhere." The first thought that came to mind was where the hell did Bianca come from? The second thought was that she called me by my name for the first time.

"Uh what the hell is happening?" I asked feeling a strange knot forming in the pit of my stomach. Bianca laughed sadistically and I swear to you, her image flickered. It was like "Bianca" was just a hologram. The more I concentrated on figuring out what she really looked like, the more her outer image disappeared.

"Holy crap, what the hell is that?" I yelled and pointed at Bianca. Her skin was a sickly shade of grey, a crescent shaped scar was next to her left eye. Her eyes were the color of blood and she had black fiery hair, literally! She held a sword that was black and stained, like the one from my dream.

"Crimson she's a shifter, if she touches you with her sword you're done for!" Blake stared at me with panic in his eyes.

"That's right you stupid runt! It's too bad you're never going to make it off this field alive."

"Ha please, you can't stop us!" Blake shook his head furiously.

"Crimson what do you think you're doing?" He hissed at me.

"Uh, good question because I have no idea." We turned out attention back to Bianca who looked bored and impatient.

"Are we done making ourselves look like idiots?" Bianca twirled her sword in her hand and I didn't need a front row seat to feel the power radiating off of it.

"Um, we should run now." I whispered to Blake and then sprinted for the forest. If I wanted to get back on the road I'd have to take a detour since Bianca was standing in the way.

"You're not going anywhere brat!" In less than two seconds, she'd caught up with us and was a bit farther ahead. She whipped around and sent a powerful kick to my stomach. There was no way I could out smart her. She was stronger and faster than me, not to mention she had a sword that could rip my soul in half with one cut. Talk about overpowered much! I landed on my back so hard that I couldn't breathe.

"I never should've gotten out of bed this morning." I coughed hard trying to get back up. Just as I was almost to my feet there was another loud thud. What I saw made my jaw drop in awe and heartbeat increase in horror at the same time. Standing about ten feet away from me was a man with caramel skin, brilliant gold/brown eyes and messy black hair. A pale white scar ran across his left eye, reaching almost all the way to his temple. His eyes looked murderous and vengeful. His entire being radiated an evil power.

"I'm honestly hurt Enya, I thought we agreed that we'd kill her together!" The stranger walked over to Bianca-or Enya, whatever she was. I noticed that the grass he walked over immediately burst into flames, yeah I was so screwed!

"You were taking too long. You Archangels think you're in control of everything!" As Bianca continued arguing with the super scary guy, Blake rushed over to me.

"Uh, it's about time you got back here and saved my sorry butt!" I tried to sound angry but I was terrified and hoping this was all a dream.

"I'm sorry Crimson but I had to call Chiron, he's sending back up so don't worry. Now let's get out of here while they're arguing." Obviously, there was no point in saying that because lucky us, they stopped arguing.

"Not so fast satyr, she's not going anywhere." The guy held out his palm and fire shot from it. A wall of fire separated me from Blake and sealed me in with those creatures.

"It's a shame you'll never get to help your brother now!" He laughed and at that moment a sword made out of what looked like white gold appeared in his hand.

"Does everyone get a sword but me?" I complained in frustration. He only laughed and lunged forward, slashing my arm. At first there was no pain but then it felt like someone was pouring hot coals over my arm. My eyes watered with tears, giving Bianca an opportunity to strike. I managed to side step her attack and trip her. Apparently she wasn't going to do down easily because she elbowed me in the middle of my back.

"Son of a punk!" I cried but it came out in a lisp since I ended up biting my tongue. I tried to move away from Bianca but she grabbed onto my ankle. I used my free foot to kick her in the face, it wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be but it still worked. She hissed and let go of my foot. I scrambled to my fee and moved away from Bianca but ended up walking straight into the other guy.

"Hey there creepy fire dude," I laughed nervously "How about you let me go? After all, two against one is completely unfair."

"Pathetic mortal, I am Roman, third most powerful Archangel. As for letting you go, well your soul will depart to Hades but your body shall rot in this field."

"Well that's kind of morbid now isn't it?" Roman just stared at me and twirled his sword in his hand before striking down on me. I managed to move out of the way but his sword nicked part of my back. I blindly attempted to land at least one punch on him but he was ten times faster than me. Bianca was up again with a fierce death glare.

"Blake what the hell do I do?" I yelled not even bothering to try and hide the panic in my voice.

"Just hang on a bit longer Crimson!"

"What the freaking hell does that mean? I'm about to get killed, I don't even have a freaking weapon! I'm going to die!" I was completely pissed off. It was like he'd gone through so much damn trouble to find me, only to let me die! Roman and Bianca spun their swords with a lust for blood in their eyes. Just as I was about to send a prayer to whoever was up there, the weirdest thing happened. This really scary tough looking girl showed up riding a Pegasus with a few other people too. They all looked pretty fierce and deadly with their weapons and armor.

"Shouldn't you two be in the depths of Tartarus right now?" The huskier looking girl growled.

"The master has need of us and we shall do his bidding." Roman answered in his deep powerful voice.

"So you're both mindless zombies with no minds of your own. Well that makes a lot of sense!" She raised her spear that seemed to be electric. "I think it'd be in your best bet to hand the girl over, or else suffer the wrath of Ares." She narrowed her eyes fiercely.

"Oh you stupid, stupid demigod. Do you really think we fear you? There's no way you're getting her alive." Bianca cackled before running me through with her sword. The last thing I saw was the girl start to glow red and Blake calling out my name. My soul felt like it was literally being ripped into pieces. The pain was excruciating and for a while I really thought I was dead. I felt myself being taken somewhere else; it was pitch black and freezing cold. I could just barely make out the figures of two people, a boy and a girl running hand in hand. The expressions on their faces were that of pure terror, shrieks and howls attacked them from all sides. Slowly, my vision started to fade to black until I was unconscious.

ΨΨΨ

"Crimson, Crimson wake up." A faint voice echoed around in my head. Eventually the darkness became lighter and I could feel the sunlight warming my skin. I opened my eyes slowly and was met with a heavy dose of sunlight. I hissed and quickly shut them again.

"Oh my gosh that's bright, I don't like it." I lifted my hands to cover my eyes when someone whistled lowly.

"That's impressive, she's made a full recovery. I've never seen it happen before, she truly is special."

"Okay whoever you are, you know I'm right here right? I can here you!" I opened my eyes again and saw Blake sitting beside me and a guy who was half horse-wait half horse?

"Crimson you're okay!" Blake gave me a huge hug and I nearly choked.

"Yeah Blake, I'm fine!" I managed to cough out and patted his shoulder. I stared at the horse guy a really strange curious look.

"So um, who are you?"

"I am Chiron, activities director of Camp Half-Blood. I have trained several heroes for thousands of years."

I raised my eyebrow quizzically. "Okay, first of all half-blood? What does that mean? And second, did you say _thousands_ of years?" Chiron smiled softly.

"Yes child, thousands of years as for your second question, half-blood meaning half human and half god. It's funny how your brother asked a similar question." His smiled turned sad as though he was remembering something painful.

"I'm half god?" A look of utter disbelief splayed out on my face. "How is that even possible? I mean lots of weird stuff has happened to me but...I don't think it could get as weird as this."

"Well somehow your dad hooked up with your mom and well...you happened, to simplify." Blake grinned sheepishly.

"So...who's my dad?" I found it pretty freaking cool my dad was a god to be honest; this was probably the best news I'd heard all my life.

"You don't know yet? You're dad is Poseidon! God of the sea." Blake gushed, for some reason he seemed as excited as I was.

"No way, that is beyond freaking cool." My eyes were so wide I thought they'd pop out of my head for sure.

"It's not as cool as you think Crimson; technically you shouldn't even be alive since your existence violates a very old oath taken by your father and his brothers. I don't know how you've survived this long but it's obvious that this is what you were meant to do. You're lucky to be alive at this current time." Chiron gave me a hard stare. Ouch, talk about a harsh reality check.

"I don't mean to be harsh but you need to understand the severity of who you are. Your brother is probably the most powerful demigod this camp has ever seen and gods knows what that says about you. You need to be extremely cautious at all times because there are monsters and probably gods who want you dead." Wow, this was just getting more depressing by the second, talk about having the life sucked out of you...hah again!

"So why exactly am I here if I'm well...not even supposed to exist?" I asked.

"Your brother is in Tartarus and you need to go and help him and Annabeth out. There's something different about you, I can sense it." Chiron narrowed his eyes slightly like he was trying to figure out what seemed off about me.

"Tartarus, so you're basically sending me on a death mission? Gee thanks a lot, I haven't been conscious for more than ten minutes and now I'm supposed to die again. That's just great." I got up and winced, feeling a burning sensation on my stomach. I lifted up my shirt to see a long red scar that seemed to be glowing faintly.

"Whoa, what the heck is that?" I nearly freaked. Okay I'm sorry that was a lie, I totally freaked! This scar was ugly and red and looked like it was still burning. Talk about completely digsuting.

"That's your battle wound, you should actually be dead but somehow you survived the blade's poison. Blake brought you here so that you can train and learn to harness your powers, then you will be able to rescue your brother."

"Okay you keep saying 'my brother' but who is he?"

"Percy Jackson, the best camper I ever had." Chiron's eyes became cloudy and his expression was unreadable. But it was gone as quickly as it came and was replaced with a kind smile that crinkled his eyes.

"Enough of the doom and gloom, come meet some of the other campers, you'll begin training right away. Oh and you're going to need something else." Chiron went inside the big cabin and came out a few minutes later with an orange shirt that said Camp Half-Blood on it. He handed it to me.

"There, now all you need to do is get settled in cabin three and you'll be all set." I wrapped the shirt around my arm and followed Chiron as he walked off.

"Come along Crimson keep up, we can't afford any slow heroes." I groaned inwardly and then ran to catch up with him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry it's so short, chapter 4 should be longer ^.^ **

Chapter 3 Ψ

We walked over to what looked like an arena- or I should say Chiron trotted and I ran to catch up to him. Inside the arena were two people who were having an intense sword fight. The girl managed to knock the guy's sword out of his hand and kicked him in the chest. She grinned triumphantly and stuck her sword in the sand. Chiron clapped and walked over to the two.

"You're making excellent progress Sofia." Chiron complimented her and she beamed. "Crimson this is Sofia daughter of Aphrodite and Paris son of Apollo." Sofia had this angelic look going on for her. Everything about her seemed perfect, from her softly curled blond hair to her flawless tanned skin. She stuck her hand out to me and I shook it tentatively.

"So you're the one everyone's been talking about. Glad to see that you're still alive." She flashed her perfect smile and laughed. Paris stood up and wiped the dust off his shirt. He gave me a hard stare, with the sun behind him he looked like a god. A dangerous, powerful and very attractive looking god.

"Paris will be teaching you sword fighting and Greek."

"Whoa, I actually get to fight with a sword?"

"Well obviously, how else do you want to fight? Empty handed?" Paris sneered. Wow his special power must've been making people feel stupid and awkward. Jerk.

"Well I'll leave you two to get started; I'll be back in an hour." Chiron gave a short wave and then left the arena.

"So where's your sword pipsqueak?"

"Hold on, let me check my back pocket. Darn it! It's gone, must've fell out on the way here." I said sarcastically, two could play at his jerk game.

"Haha, you're hilarious. Really." He said flatly. "Sof, give her your sword. Let's see what the tide swept in." A mischievous look twinkled in his eyes. I took Sofia's sword and weighed it in my hand. It wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be. It actually felt right. Paris twirled his sword in his hand and then slashed my upper arm.

"Gosh, what the hell? I thought you were supposed to be teaching me, not maiming me!" I stepped back and held my arm.

"This is how I teach, if you're too chicken to learn then there's the door, feel free to use it." He smirked and I felt a huge need to defend my pride. I narrowed my eyes at him and swung my sword, aiming for his face but he blocked my hit. He was really quick and I barely dodged his next attack. Fighting him was making me sweat like crazy and I was in pain from all the slashes he'd managed to land on me.

"You're nothing special, I don't know why everyone is making such a big deal out of you. You'll never be as good as your brother was." Paris was sweating and panting slightly so I don't know what the hell he was talking about. He seemed pretty winded.

"Hey, let's try something. Here Crimson have some water." Sofia interrupted and threw me a bottle.

"Oh my gosh thank you. I've been dying for some water." I unscrewed the cap and greedily drank the water. Energy coursed through my body and I felt ten billion times better. Paris narrowed his eyes and went in for another strike. I raised my sword and blocked his hit. I dropped the empty bottle on the ground.

"Nothing special huh? We'll see about that." I raised my eyebrow and then kicked him in the gut. I followed that with a slash to his face. Our swords clashed several times in attempts to attack the other. He cut my leg and I graciously slashed his chest, then used the flat part of the blade to knock his sword out of his hand.

Neither of us said anything, I just marveled at how I'd managed to somehow win.

"Wow, twice in one day Paris? I think you're getting rusty!" Sofia laughed as she approached us.

"Yeah whatever, I was going easy on her. Tomorrow she won't be so lucky." Paris wiped the sweat from off his upper lip and walked out of the arena.

"What's his problem?" I collapsed on the floor and handed Sofia back her sword.

"Oh don't mind Paris, he's just cranky cause you totally kicked his butt! That was awesome thought, for someone who's never picked up a sword before you were amazing." I smiled at Sofia but couldn't help turning to watch Paris. The sun really did wonders for him, it made his hair look like gold.

My creepy staring session was cut short when Chiron came back into the arena with a bow and arrows strapped over his back.

"I take it the session went well? Considering how you aren't horribly disfigured."

"It was awesome, she totally wrecked Paris. She's quite a natural." I felt kind of uncomfortable with all the praise, it just felt so weird. For some strange reason I felt like I didn't deserve it either.

"Let's see how well she does at archery. Come on Crimson, your day isn't over yet." It took all the energy I had left in me to get myself off of the floor.

"Couldn't we just call it a day?" I huffed as I caught up with Chiron.

"Monsters don't care how tired you are, they'll keep going until you're destroyed. You really need to build endurance and we don't have that much time."

It turns out I was really awful at archery. Somewhere near the end of the session I actually managed to his part of the target and not some innocent camper walking by, that was totally going to get me some brownie points. Not!

"At least you didn't run anyone through." Chiron chuckled lightly. I won't lie, I felt a bit discouraged that I sucked horribly at archery. I guess Chiron sensed that because he gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"Don't worry Crimson, you'll get better. In the mean time you should go freshen up and then get ready for dinner."

"Yeah that'd be great, only one problem though. I don't have any clothes except the ones I'm wearing." Speaking of clothes, having a sword fight in a skirt is freaking hard. Just saying.

"Oh I'm sure Sofia can help you." A soon as Chiron said that, Sofia appeared out of nowhere. This girl was like beetle juice.

"What's wrong?" God was she always this peppy? If her day went anything like how I'd started training today, she had serious powers of happiness.

"Oh well I kind of don't have any clothes other than this stupid uniform which is pretty messed up at this point." I looked down at my tattered skirt and torn shirt. Gosh I probably looked horrifying.

"Oh that's no problem! I've got tons of clothes you can borrow." She grabbed my wrist and led me away from Chiron. We walked to a clearing where several cabins were arranged in a U shape.

"Well to cabin ten." Sofia opened the door to the cleanest and most well groomed cabin I'd ever seen. The beds were made perfectly and everything was color coordinated. The air smelled sweet and fresh, kind of like strawberries. Sofia walked over to her dresser and pulled out some shorts, jeans, shirts and pretty much everything I'd need.

"We're about the same size so you should have no problem fitting into them." She handed me the neatly folded pile of clothes that practically hid my face.

"Thanks Sofia." I said but I'm pretty sure it was muffled by the clothes.

"Don't mention it; if you need anything else you know where to find me now!" Damn this girl was seriously nice.

After I showered I took a good look at all the cuts that I'd gotten from my fight with Paris. They were pretty gross and relatively deep. I was getting messed up before I even got down to Tartarus. It'd be nice if they had a special potion that would get rid of these, they were definitely going to scar over. On my way back to find Sofia I bumped into a girl with chocolate colored skin and short curled hair.

"Oh sorry!" I lent her my hand to her to help her off the ground; she gave me an amused look, almost like she was laughing at me. She grabbed my hand and pulled herself up.

"Sorry about that, this pile of clothes makes it impossible to see."

"Hey don't worry about it pipsqueak, I'm not made of glass." She laughed, but her laugh was nothing like Sofia's. It sounded more genuine.

"I'm Nikoleta and if I remember correctly you're Crimson right? I've actually been looking for you."

"That's me!" I was surprised people actually called me by my name and not 'freak'. It felt nice.

"Hey uh, I hate to bother you but could you show me where my cabin is?"

"That's why I was looking for you. Chiron said that since you haven't been claimed yet you should stay in the Hermes cabin for now."

"Oh alright, well let's go over there." Nikoleta was pretty cool, she liked to talk a lot which was fine by me since I was more of a listener.

"Here we are, cabin eleven." Nikoleta opened the door and an arrow whizzed past her head.

"Whaat?" I peeked out from behind the pile of clothes and raised my eyebrow. A boy with a mischievous grin and an elfish face appeared from behind the door.

"Haha, sorry about that Nik, next time don't get in the way." He laughed hysterically then stepped outside.

"You're hilarious Travis." Nikoleta rolled her eyes but smirked. "This is Crimson, the newbie. Since she hasn't been claimed yet Chiron says she'll stay here."

"Ah, well come on in Crimson, you can put your stuff over there." He pointed to the bottom bed in the corner. I dumped the pile of clothes onto the bed.

"Wow, those are some wicked cuts you got there." Travis whistled. I stared at my arms and legs again.

"Yeah I know, it's pretty gross." I tugged at the hem of my camp half-blood shirt.

"Well you better get used to it cause you're going to be getting a lot more. Being a demigod isn't glamorous." He smirked again.

"I've seen that, but I think I can handle it, especially since everyone is counting on me to bring Percy and Annabeth back."

"You'll be fine kiddo, that is if the things in Tartarus don't get you first." My eyes widened and Travis let out another laugh.

"Oh stop it Travis, come on it's time for dinner and don't be late. I'll see you later Crimson." She smiled at me and gave a short wave before running off.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4 Ψ

By the time Travis and his brother Connor got the Hermes cabin ready we were running late. If you've never tried to sneak into an open pavilion in a group, let me tell you that it's impossible. So I really don't know why they bothered trying. This fat, sweaty, balding guy called Travis and Connor out and gave them dish duty for another week. After that we sat down and the food was served. It was an amazing sight, I'd never seen this much food in my life. Living in a foster home with a family who could barely afford to feed us all, there wasn't much food so this was like heaven.

Anyway, back to the feast. Once our plates were full we had to get up and put part of our dinner into the fire as an offering for the gods. I felt a bit childish but I sent a prayer to my dad.

"Hey dad, um whoever you are. Please claim me soon, I don't know Percy but I can tell he means a lot to these people. So I hope you can hear this and help out soon." And with that I returned to my seat and devoured my dinner. I hadn't eaten since...well actually I didn't know how long it'd been since my encounter with Bianca.

The campers from cabin eleven were really friendly but very sneaky. I didn't even notice they'd managed to swipe my diamond stud earrings until they gave them back while dying of laughter. Their humour was cheesy but it put me in a good mood. At one point I happened to look across the pavilion and saw Paris staring at me intensely. He looked away quickly when he noticed I'd seen him. I decided to ignore him since he was a moody punk. After dinner we went to the fire pit where we roasted marshmallows and the Apollo cabin led a sing along. The coolest part was the fire, Nikoleta said that it grew and changed colours based on our energy and mood. At the moment it was about five feet and yellow mixed with orange.

A cool breeze blew and the smell of salt water was in the air, and then just like that the fire grew to be ten feet and turned blue. About the same time Nikoleta turned to stare at me and gasped causing a chain reaction from everyone else.

"Um what's going on?" I looked around very confused. The wind was getting stronger and the smell of salt water was very dominant.

"Uh, look up Crimson." I did and above my head was a blue trident. Damn that was fast, I guess I really was Poseidon's daughter after all.

"Wait why are you guys all shocked if you already knew who I was?"

"I guess we were pretty sceptical. I mean Poseidon was only supposed to have one kid, and even Percy was pushing it. You guys were born of a broken oath." Travis explained. Before anyone could say anything else, there was a loud clap of thunder and a group of people appeared wearing ancient Greek clothing.

"Wow, you guys do magic shows too?" I asked a bit too loudly because they all turned to glare at me.

"Crimson shut up," Nikoleta hissed. "Those are the twelve Olympian gods"

"Oh crap." I muttered, I sure had a knack for making awesome first impressions.

"Look even Hades if here." The campers began to whisper in awe amongst each other. Chiron got up and walked towards them. He gave a short respectful bow.

"To what occasion do we owe the presence of all twelve Olympians?" I felt pretty dumb at this point since I had no knowledge of Greek mythology...or reality at this point. Thanks to Nikoleta I now at least knew their names.

"I believe my daughter has arrived."

"Yeah, illegimate child number two." Hades snorted. My dad looked nothing like I expected, then again I don't know what I was expecting. The one thing about him that caught my attention was his captivating sea blue eyes. They were like mine.

"Crimson come forward, the rest of you are dismissed." Poseidon gave me a stern look. I looked to Nikoleta for help but she shot me an apologetic look. Once all the campers were gone, I tentatively walked up to the gods. Zeus snapped his fingers and a personalized chair appeared for each of them. I felt really small and insignificant in comparison. For some reason I had a dreadful feeling in my gut.

"Now Crimson, you've been told why you've been brought here. Your quest is to go to Tartarus and help Percy out." Poseidon had this faint look of hurt when he mentioned Percy's name.

"And Annabeth." Athena cut in sharply.

"Yes...and Annabeth. You'll be able to bring them back here but you're going to have to stay in the underworld."

"What? What are you talking about? So you're just using me to save your kids and then you're going to kill me? Gee, thanks a lot dad." I spat out the last word like it was venom. I was hurt, for the first time in my life I thought I'd found somewhere I actually belonged. Apparently not.

"You aren't supposed to be alive anyway. Your father had to move you and your mother to some off the grid town where people only aged to a certain point." Hades had this smug look on his face.

"So nothing was ever real?" My words were barely audible. Everything made sense now. That explained why there were no old people in the town and why no one had grandparents. If that part of my life wasn't real then I was beginning to wonder if anything was real. Maybe they just gave me a bunch of images and put them in my head. Maybe I was a robot...okay I don't think it's that weird. Anyway back to my dilemma.

"I'm sorry Crimson, but you're not meant to come back." Poseidon couldn't even look me in the eye. I know I'm being a bit harsh but he so wasn't wining the father of the year award.

"What do you mean I'm not meant to come back?"

"It's in the prophecy. You are not meant to exist, you are a cursed child." Athena stared at me with a cold look in her eyes. Wow these guys really hated me, but this hate felt more intense and more hurtful than any human was capable of making me feel. It made me want to throw myself off a cliff; it made me feel guilty for being alive.

"What prophecy?"

"Why don't we ask the Oracle? Rachel come on out, there's no point in hiding." Apollo said with a small smirk. Damn he was pretty hot, that would explain where Paris got his good looks from, not that I was saying he was hot! A red headed girl stepped out of the darkness looking kind of sheepish.

"Sorry but I just couldn't stay away, I had to know what was going on with Percy and Annabeth." I'd seen Rachel sitting at Chiron's table at dinner.

"Understandable Rachel, would you please repeat the prophecy for Crimson?" Apollo sure was charismatic. Rachel seemed to have a lot of respect for him because she didn't argue. Then again she was the Oracle, so her job was to give prophecies. Well no duh Crimson.

"_Something fierce rises from its grave_

_Tainted blood is what is craves_

_The child of broken oath shall be marked with a sear_

_They'll go down into hell and face their deepest fear_

_Through a sacrifice the rest will be free_

_But one will have to stay behind for all eternity" _Well that was just great. I was going to have to stay in Tartarus for the rest of eternity. Freaking amazing, I'd get to meet my brother for who knows how long and then stay behind while they get to come back and live the rest of their lives. But I didn't have time for any self pity, even though I'd never met him my brother came first now.

"Oh, well that's nice I guess. Since I can't argue here or bail this quest I guess I have to go through with it. But you know you guys should really consider filling people in with all the details before you send them on death missions to save your own kids. So thank you so much for all your help, I'll be on my way now." And with that I turned around and walked back to cabin eleven where my stuff was. It looked like I was going to be sleeping in my cabin tonight, alone. When I got there practically the entire Hermes cabin was waiting to bombard me with questions as soon as I walked in the door.

"Oh my gods what happened?"

"What did they want from you?" A bunch of questions came from several directions and it was a bit overwhelming.

"They want me to go help Percy and Annabeth out of Tartarus and then I have to stay behind." Silence filled the room quickly. They all stared at me with looks of pity and I couldn't stand to see it, it made me feel even ickier than before.

"Hey don't worry guys, at least Percy and Annabeth will be back at camp. They'll be safe again, well for a while since being a demigod is pretty damn dangerous, but the point is they'll be home again." I had to put up a front. There was no way that I was going to display just how crappy I felt about all of this, maybe I was one of those people who were destined to have horrible lives. I just hoped it would get a bit better soon.

"Yeah but you're not coming back with them. That's not really fair."

"Well you gotta do what you gotta do." I said and walked over to the bed my clothes were on and picked up the pile.

"Thanks for your hospitality guys; I'll see you in the morning." I smiled at them and walked out. I found Chiron waiting for me outside the cabin; he looked kind of anxious, but just barely. I guess he wasn't a big fan of showing emotions.

"Crimson, I'm sorry-"

"Look it's fine you don't have to apologize, unless you had any control over what happened then it's fine. Sure it sucks a lot and I don't really feel like running through a field of flowers into the sunset but I'm fine." I walked faster but there was no point because I had two legs and Chiron had four.

"Crimson you know you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm sure someone else can try to help them."

"Oh sure, then I'll be a huge chicken for backing out and a terrible sister on top of it. Besides I don't think anyone else is willing to go into Tartarus as much as they care about Percy and Annabeth. Besides the prophecy is about me, I'm the child born of a broken oath."

"You're sure you want to go through with this?" We stopped in front of my cabin and he stared at me intensely.

"Yes I'm sure; if my brother needs me then I'm going to go to help him. My whole life I've wanted someone to actually care about me and be there for me and now I actually have a chance to build that kind of relationship with someone else." Chiron gave me an understanding smile and nodded.

"You'll make a great hero, crimson." So far I didn't feel like one, but at least someone had faith in me. My cabin looked very lonely; there was some kind of horn on the wall and a fountain at the back. I was assuming that those were Percy's belongings; on his bed was a picture of him and Annabeth. They looked so happy together it made me feel worse that they were stuck in Tartarus. Scary, treacherous, _dark_ Tartarus. I probably should have mentioned that I'm severely afraid of the dark but I didn't want to seem like a huge loser. I mean I was supposed to be this strong fearless demigod right? I'm the daughter of Poseidon, I was supposed to be powerful! Not afraid of the dark. I couldn't remember why but I just know I'm deathly afraid of it. I put my stuff on the top bunk of Percy's bed and crawled into it. It felt nice to lie in a bed and not have my butt kicked by this demon monster thing. Eventually my thoughts turned to mush and I was out cold.


End file.
